A typical non-populated circuit board includes layers of conductive material (e.g., copper) and non-conductive material (e.g., Fiberglass) sandwiched together. The conductive material defines component mounting locations (e.g., surface mount pads, plated-through holes, etc.) and a network of electrical pathways (e.g., power signal planes, ground signal planes, individual traces, differential pair signal traces, etc.). The non-conductive material insulates the electrical pathways from each other as well as provides rigidity to protect and structurally support the electrical pathways.
There are a variety of approaches to mounting circuit board components to a circuit board. For example, for electronic components that require precise connection to mounting locations formed by sets of circuit board contacts (i.e., surface mount pads, plated-through holes, etc.), the circuit board manufacturer can solder the electronic components to the mounting locations using a soldering process. In one conventional soldering process, the circuit board manufacturer positions the circuit boards such that the sides to be populated face up, prints solder paste over sets of surface mount pads, places electronic surface mount components over the surface mount pads and in contact with the printed solder paste (e.g., using automated equipment which picks and places individual resistors, capacitors and diodes, Ball Grid Array components, etc.), and applies heat to activate flux and to melt solder within the solder paste. As a result, solder joints form between surface mount contacts of the electronic surface mount components and the mounting locations of the circuit board. This process may be repeated on the opposite side of the circuit board in order to utilize space on both sides of the circuit board.
As another example, for items that are generally bulky or cumbersome such as fiber optic cables and daughter cards, the circuit board manufacturer typically provides mounting holes through the circuit boards, and attaches the items using hardware which fastens to the circuit boards through the mounting holes. For example, to secure a fiber optic cable (or light pipe) to a circuit board, the manufacturer typically designs “keep-out” regions at particular locations within the circuit board (i.e., regions that do not contain any conductive material), drills holes through these “keep-out” regions to form mounting holes, and uses nuts and bolts to mount clips to the circuit board through these mounting holes. Accordingly, when the circuit board is ready for operation within an electronic system (e.g., at an installation site), a technician can easily secure the fiber optic cable to the circuit board by simply inserting portions of the cable into the mounted clips. Similarly, to secure a daughter card to a circuit board, the manufacturer forms mounting holes through the circuit board, and fastens the daughter card to the circuit board using hardware through the mounting holes (e.g., nuts and bolts, standoffs, L-shaped brackets, etc.).